The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-07-08

AXE the car tom orrow and ride hve hun
ired mics to see him. The full power of
he Gospel has not vet been touched. As
} sportsman throws up his hand snd
catches the bal flying through the air,
Just SO easily will this Gospel after awhile
catch this round world flying from its
orbit and bring it back to the heart of
Christ. Give it full swing, and it will
pardon every sin, heal every wound,
cure every trouble, emancipase every
slave, and ransom every nation.
Christian men and women who go
out this afternoon to do Christian work,
as you go into the Sunday-schools, and
the approaching stations, and the penn
tentlaries. and the asylums, want you
10 feel that you bear in your hand .
weapon, compared with which the light
ming ha, no speed, and avalanches have
no heft, aud the thunderbolts OF Heaven
have no power; il is the arrow of the
Gospel Take careful aim
Pull the arrow clear back until the head
strikes the bow. Then let it fy. And
may the slain Of the Lord be many.
Again, if you want to be skillful in spir-
itual hunting you must hunt in unfre-
Quented aud secluded places. Why does
the hunter go three or four days IN the
forests, or over Raquette
lake into the wilds Of the Adirondack!
1t is the only way to do. The deer are
shy. and one "bane'' of the gun clears
the forest From the California stage
you see, as you go over the plains, here
and there coyote trottins along, almost
within range Of the gun-sometimes quite
within range of It No one cares for that;
1t is worthless The good game is hidden
and secluded. Every hunter knows that.
So, mapy of the souls that will b. Of
most worth for Christ, and Of most value
to the church, are secluded. They do not
come in your way. You will have to go
where they are. Yonder they are down
in that cellar. yonder they are up in that
garrett Far away from the door Of any
church the gospel arrow has hot been
pointed at them. The tract distributor
catch a glimpse Of them Is hunter
sight of partrid ge or roe5uck.
The trouble il we are waiting for the
game to come to u.s. We are not good
hunters. We are standing in Schermer-
horn street. expecting that the timid
antelope will come up and eat out Of our
hand. We are expecting that the prairie
Is not their habit. II the church should
come in and be saved, it will wait IN vain.
The world will not come.
What the church wants now is to lift
their feet from damask ottamans and put
them In the stirrups. We want pulpit
on wheels. The church wants not SO
much cushi ons as it wants saddle bags
a 70 al Ia
the gown and the kid gloves and put on
the hunting shirt We have been fishing
so long in the brooks that run under the
shadow of the church that the fish knows
US, and they avoid the hook aud escape a.
soon as we como to the bank. while yon.
der is Upper Saranac and Big Tupper's
Lake, where the first swing Of the gospel
net would break it for tae multitude of
fishes.
There Is outside work to be done. What
is that see in the backwoodsi 1t is .
tent The hunters have made clearing
and camp,d out What do they care il
they have wet feet, or have nothing but a
pine branch for a pillow, or for the forth
east storm. If moose. in the darkness,
steps into the lake to drink they hear it
right away. If a loon cry in the midni ght
they hear it So in the serving OF God
we have exposed work. We have got to
camp out and rough If. We are putting
all our care on the 1900 people of Brook
lyn, who, they say, come to church.
What are we doing for the 10000 that do
not cores Have they no souls! Are
they sinless that they need no pardon!
Are there no dead in their houses that
they need no comforti Are they cut Oh
from God, to go into eternity-no wing to
bear them, no welcome 10 greet themi
Ihear to day surging up from the lower
depths of Brooklyn a groan that comes
through our Christian assemblages aud
through our Christian churches: and it
blots out all this Gene from nv eyes to-
day, as by the mist Of great Niagara
for the dash and the plunge of these
great torrents of life dropping down into
the fathomless and laundering abyss of
suffering and woe. I sometimes think
that just as God blotted out the Church
of Thyatira and Corinth and Laoiicea,
because Of their sloth and stolidity. he
will blot out American ard English
Christianity. aud raise on the ruins a
stalwart, wide awake missionary church,
that can take the meaning Of that COM
maud.
Go into all the world, and preach the Gospel
to every creature. He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth
not shall be damned --
remark, further, il you want to sue.
coed in gospel hunting you must have
courage. II the hunter stand with trem b
ling hand or shoulder that fljnches with
fear, instead OF his taking the cats m nunt,
the catameunt takes him. What would
have become Of the Greenlander if, wheu
out hunting for the bear, he should stand
shivering with terror on an icebergi
What would have become OF Du Chaillu
and L!vin gstoae in the African thicket
with a faint heart and a weak knee!
When a panther comes within twenty
PAGES of you, and it has its eve on you,
and it has seuatted for the fearful spring:
STEADY, there
Courage. O. ye spiritual hunters! There
are great monsters of iniquity prowling
all around about the community. Shall
we not. IN the strength Of God. go forth
and combat them. We not onlv need
more heart, but more back bone. What is
the Church Of God that it shout fear to
look in the eye any transgressiont There
is the Bengal tiger OF drunkenness that
prowls around, and instead Of attackin e
it, how many OF us hide under the church
pew or the communion sable, There Is so
much inv sted in it we are afraid to as
sault it-miIlioas Of dollars in barrels, in
watts, in spigots. in corkscrews. in gin
palaces with n ar bic floors and ItalIan-top
tables and chased ice-coolers. and in the
tartaric acid, and the nux vomica- that
60 to make up our pure Amer
lean drinks. looked with wonderful
eyes on the Heidelberg tun.r 1t is the
great liquor vat of Germany. which is
said TO hold eight hundred hogsheads Of
wine, and only three tim IS in one hundred
years has it been filed. But as l stood
and looked II it said to myself:
'SThat is noshing-eight hundred hogs
heads. Why, our American watts hold
A SQ0 ga h,rr>l. If frou . dr;nrs and IRA